Tintin Forums

Moderator Note: This thread combines several separate ones on the subject of the documentary.

Hello

We are making a documentary on Tintin for Channel 4 First Cuts which is set to be broadcast next year and will be presented by Dom Joly - a life long Tintin fan.

The documentary will set out to discover what it is about this intrepid explorer that has captured the imagination of so many people around the globe, and explore the history, the myths, and the political intrigue that lies at the heart of this literary legend.

We are in the production stage at the moment and we are planning to film in Brussels, France, Scotland and more.

We are hoping to get in touch with and interview the biggest Tintin fans in Brussels (January 2010). If you are a big fan of Tintin and wish to play a part in the documentary please email me with your contact details and what makes you such a big fan.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Back2Back Productions.
email: daniel[at]back2back.tv

Moderator Note: Please be aware that the above request is separate to, and different from, any previous request to find fans for a media project. Please also note that while Back2Back Productions approached us for permission to make their request to our members, and we are happy to help them, they are operating independently of Tintinologist.org. If you wish to participate in their programme, please direct questions and queries directly to Daniel at the above e-mail address.

The Happy Tintinologist Team

About time a doc was made though its only because of the light of the film it sees the light of day.I dont think there has been a Tintin doc on tv since ITV made one in 1993 i think it was and the Tintin Et Moi DVD.Hopefully there wont be random so called celebrities commenting on Tintin and Haddock calling them a great Gay couple and people determined to make every one believe that Herge is a racist.I hope the merchandise politicking side doesn't get involved and ruin it.

@numner1fan

I hope that the documentary does look at Herge's attitude to race and antisemitism. There are important questions to be explored about the differences between the man himself and the image he presented.

More importantly, I hope they make a serious, balanced and sensible documentary.

An hour of celebs doing talking heads on how they read Tintin as a child or images of fans standing outside Brussels landmarks will be dull.

Hi All,

I thought our British readers would like to know there is an article in the Radio times(13-19 March) about Tintin, it's in response to the Dom Joly programme that will be aired on C4 next Friday. It's an extract from the Harry Thompson biography and there is a short interview with Dom.

Enjoy

David

The programme is called First Cut-Dom Jolly and The Black island-Documentary series.Dom Jolly adopts the guise of children's cartoon character (the comic was first) Tintin and retraces his steps in The Black Island.

This airs Friday 19Th March 2010 and after will be available on 4OD straight after the broadcast

I am looking forward to this programme it looks as if it could be a good watch

Yes about time there was a documentary about Tintin on TV dont think there has been one since there was once on ITV in the 1993 I believe.

Is this a series of Tintin related docs? or is it a one off ?

There were two Tintin-realted items on the BBC Breakfast programme this morning. First they were interviewing Steven Moffat about Doctor Who, and brought up the fact that he's worked on the script for the new movie, which he says should look beautiful from what he's seen. He was talking about having come to the books from the old Belvision cartoons, and how he loved the character when he was cut off by the presenters with another question.
Later Dom Joly was on talking about the documentary and his love of Tintin when he was growing up in the Lebanon.
Sadly the clips they showed didn't really convey much in the way of love: he apparently sets out to be Tintin, so dyes his hair, dresses up in a "costume" (which of course is presumably "comically" inaccurate - a blue v-neck jumper and his trousers tucked into his socks), then engages in such antics as "stealing" a dog from outside a bakery to be Snowy.
Although they did gain access to the archives to see Hergé's reference material, he did say that Moulinsart were less than happy with the finished programme.
To be honest, I'm not surprised. I don't have anything against a comedy documentary about Tintin's adventures per se, but at least let it be a funny comedy documentary, and this all just looked a bit strained to me.
In the Breakfast interview he also insisted on saying things like that Hergé never traveled to do research, and worked from photos, when actually Black Island is a rare case of him doing just that, with his first ever trip abroad being to Britain with a group of Scouts, so that he could sketch the South Coast for the black and white edition.

Anyway, perhaps the rest of the programme will be better...

I also saw that this morning, jock and I agree with you. I started off enjoying the piece but I felt slightly embarrassed by the end of it. The gags were too cheap. Not really befitting.

I didn't see BBC Breakfast this morning, and like Jock, I'll suspend judgement till I see the actual programme, but I do get the impression from other programmes he's done that Dom Joly's been struggling a bit to find his TV style since Trigger Happy TV. He seems to want to make interesting and intelligent Louis Theroux-type documentaries, but often looks as if he's been put under pressure to carry on being the off-the-wall funny man.

I get the same feeling when watching those Paul Merton travel series sometimes. Good though they generally are, you can sometimes wonder if there's a worried young producer just off screen, mistakenly worried that viewers need a constant stream of funny gimmicks to prevent them switching over to another channel, and instructing the presenter to "do something funny". Comedians as documentary presenters can be great, but they're often at their best when they trust the inherent interestingness of the subject matter and don't worry about finding the comedy angle.

Personally I like telly programmes where someone who knows what they're talking about simply tells you and shows you interesting things in some depth, without assuming you share the two-minute attention span of your average TV executive. A documentary tracing the research locations of The Black Island, looking at Bob de Moor's contributions to this and other Tintin books, and the background to The Black Island's various versions could be a really good and visually gorgeous programme. It doesn't sounds as if we're necessarily going to get that, but as you say, we'll see!